Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Spectacle

Spec′ta·cle (spĕk′tȧ·k'l), n. [F., fr. L. spectaculum, fr. spectare to look at, to behold, v. intens. fr. specere. See Spy.] 1. Something exhibited to view; usually, something presented to view as extraordinary, or as unusual and worthy of special notice; a remarkable or noteworthy sight; a show; a pageant; a gazingstock.

O, piteous spectacle? O, bloody times! Shak.

2. A spy-glass; a looking-glass. [Obs.]

Poverty a spectacle is, as thinketh me, Through which he may his very friends see. Chaucer.

3. pl. An optical instrument consisting of two lenses set in a light frame, and worn to assist sight, to obviate some defect in the organs of vision, or to shield the eyes from bright light.

4. pl. Fig.: An aid to the intellectual sight.

Shakespeare . . . needed not the spectacles of books to read nature. Dryden.

Syn. — Show; sight; exhibition; representation; pageant.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.